New “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Trailer a Case Study in Oscar-bation

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," the adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's post-9/11 novel, has been turned into a feature film starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, and directed by Stephen Daldry. Throw in a Christmas Day release and you've got a film that wears its Oscar ambitions on its sleeve, and the new trailer is teeming with the appropriate middle-brow self-importance.

"Extremely" tells thew story of a 9-year-old boy (Thomas Horn) who loses his father (Hanks) on 9/11, and subsequently finds a key his dad left behind, which he takes as a clue to lead hm on a city-wide scavenger hunt for a secret message.

The entire premise feels cringingly contrived, and the trailer is brimming with naked double-entendres that are blatantly obvious. But Daldry can't help but drive them home with a sledgehammer, as in this exchange between the boy and his father:

Son: "If things were easy to find..."

Dad: "They wouldn't be worth finding."

And in case you somehow missed the depth of the exchange, Hanks, upon delivering his line, turns his gaze directly to the camera to give thew viewer a look that says, "Did you catch that?" Ugh.

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